Kirjahaku

A collection of ten short stories and novellas spanning romance, search for family roots, murder, euthanasia, passion, revenge with genres ranging from crime, historical fiction, science fiction and magic realism. Characters include Oliver Cromwell and Lady Margaret Beaufort, Mighty White the I.T. Knight and the devious and scheming Dr James Brodie. Settings include a ruined haunted house, a cruise liner and a time-and-space machine There is always a twist at the end

Peter Sinclair is a reasonably intelligent, fairly sociable, retired business executive, a family man attempting to carry on leading a full life, travelling and seeking safe adventures as befits his years. Family holidays should be pleasant, fun-filled times. Unfortunately, although he does not seek it, trouble seems to be attracted to Peter - not the what-a-pity sort of trouble you might expect of someone of his age and experience but serious trouble which might lead to his ultimate downfall. Crisis in Croatia sees him falling foul of a paramilitary group determined to achieve independence within Croatia; in Jewels of the Canaries he gets drawn into an attempt to smuggle stolen diamonds into Spain; in The Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Sea Salt he gets lost in a maze of smugglers' caves on the North Yorkshire coast; and, in Old Man of Hoy, he stumbles across an illicit Orkney whisky distillery with consequences far beyond his, and perhaps the reader's, expectations.

When Sarah Stephenson is found murdered and sexually abused in the Tyne-valley market town of Hexham, suspicion falls initially on her husband, George, and then on her lover, Tony Raine. The brutal murder and sodomy of a man with sexual connections to George's lover, Jenny Maxwell, bears some similar hallmarks and links to the first death. When Tony Raine is murdered, all the evidence points to his minder, Ivan Petrovski, an illegal immigrant, but Elspeth decides that they have arrested the wrong man.

An elderly man found unconscious, bound and gagged in a toilet at Manchester Airport starts a search for a wanted criminal Ronald Clarke. Clarke attempts to re-establish links with a former girl-friend now married and living in The Gambia. His approach is strongly rebuffed and, some days later, he is found dead and brutalised. Detective Sergeant Elspeth Sanderson is despatched to The Gambia to help the local police investigation, led by local Detective Inspector Boubacar Sidibeh. Their inquiries take them across The Gambia and reveal a much more complex situation than they had expected.

Recently-widowed Richard Hamilton makes love to Mandy Phillips not realising that she is virtually the same age as his son - not yet sixteen. This horrifies him and he commits suicide. His death transforms Mandy from rebellious teenager into a focussed and hard-working young student. On the day of her graduation she consummates a longstanding friendship with fellow student, David Watkins. David and her parents are killed in a horrific accident and she gives up a promising career to look after her younger brother. That leads to further experiences, including one with Richard's son, that have deeply distressing outcomes. Out-of-the-blue, Mandy receives an invitation to join her former tutor at a lecture he is giving at Nottingham University. He confesses that his invitation is a cover for a much deeper purpose and he proposes marriage. At last happiness seems to beckon but might her relationships be cursed by an African wedding bracelet she has worn since the day before she met Richard?

James Ryder, a successful international sales executive, is demoted and subjected to a series of humiliating experiences when Adrian Markham takes over as CEO. In despair, James plans to fake his own death and an aged hitchhiker is killed in the accident. His wife, Christine, reluctantly identifies the hitchhiker's body as that of her husband and James flees to establish a new identity. Left alone, Christine embarks upon an affair with a younger neighbour, who introduces her to a level of erotic excitement she has never known. Returning unannounced from hiding, James discovers them in flagrante. Their relationship sours irretrievably. As James mental state deteriorates, he suffers nightmarish recollections. He is arrested and faces charges of fraud and manslaughter. Meanwhile, Christine takes control and plots the downfall of Markham, whom she recognises as the root cause of the much of the pain and anguish in her life.

David Barstow is a struggling actor at that age where he must soon decide if acting is indeed a viable career for him. Some of his family and their friends find difficulty in accepting his partner and fellow actor, Rebecca Cameron, because of her Caribbean origins. Unwanted sexual advances offer possible solutions to their financial plight before respite and support come from unlikely sources. The respite proves to be short-lived and David seeks parental support - in vain. Then tragedy overtakes them and it is left to one family member, who has also suffered a tragic loss, to provide solace and support for Rebecca.

Having escaped from what seemed like certain death in The Orkneys, Peter Sinclair's wings are now being severely clipped by his wife. Despite that, what set out to be simple and safe family holidays and straightforward leisure activities seem to have a way of turning into roller-coaster rides for Peter and those around him. In 'It's an Ill Wind' he is accused of raping and murdering a young woman in Fuerteventura; he faces several difficult encounters with officialdom in 'A Baltic Breeze'; in 'Not Wanted on Voyage' he is in danger of being drawn into the world of illegal immigrants; in 'That Sinking Feeling' he comes face-to-face with mortal danger underground; and in 'Chocks Away' he finally achieves a life-long ambition -for a short while.

Detective Inspector Elspeth Sanderson returns to The Gambia to interrogate a gigolo, Demba Jawara. He is suspected of murdering his widowed benefactress, who had taken him to England. Elspeth enjoys a highly sexual reunion with Detective Inspector Bouba Sidibeh, with whom she had previously investigated a brutal killing in The Gambia. As a result, she is convinced that she has conceived his child. But their reunion reveals a side of her lover that she had not suspected and which she finds great difficulty in accepting. On her return to England, Elspeth concentrates the team's focus on the victim's somewhat dysfunctional family, all of whom appear to have strong motives for her murder. The investigations reveal a hornet's nest of sexual goings-on and intrigue and the finger of suspicion points in turn at each member of the family until the culprit is finally identified. Case solved, Elspeth turns to addressing her own future in England or in The Gambia, with or without her unborn baby's father.

Oscar Oswald Septimus White's is not an easy life, balancing on the one hand the excessive demands of his excessively-demanding IT mogul boss and on the other hand the constant needs of the constantly needy around the whole of the computerised world. By means of his own creation, the Whitemobile capsule, he is able to travel instantly across cyberspace to respond to cries for help from young women facing seemingly insurmountable problems with their computers. There, as Mighty White, the IT Knight, aka 'Double-O Seven' to his non-existent friends, he brings his prodigious technical prowess to bear and quickly gets the inexpert girls back on line, often leaving them with a short, homespun homily to keep them on the straight and narrow path of good computer practice. The stories are always a little risqu , occasionally contumelious, dreadfully pseudo-technical, pathetically puerile, embarrassingly chauvinistic and decidedly tongue-in-cheek.

Frank Demain has travelled the world extensively for both business and pleasure. He has used his experiences and imagination to weave geographical and historical fact with fictional events. This sequel to To Be Taken with a Pinch of Salt comprises a number of novelettes and nonsense poems conceived and created out of thin air, together with a number of short stories, flash fiction and poems prompted by Sue Chapman's P2W (Prompted to Write) Group in Darlington. There are also some poems created in response to The Oldie magazine's monthly poetry competition. All should be taken with a large pinch of salt.

. Murders in Northumbria is his fourth book of Detective Sanderson mysteries, this time comprising six short stories all based in England's most north-easterly region. The stories span football to people smuggling, farming to lottery winning, with a fair smattering of lust, jealousy and hatred.

It is almost thirty years since Brexit and the whole world has changed dramatically. But despite all of this, life, love and murder carry on. Peter Barker, member of a successful business family, finds himself accused of the rape and murder of Olivia Hamblin, an actress he was due to meet after being introduced through an on-line dating app. Peter's father sets his friend and former police detective, Sam Meredith, the task of ensuring that Peter is freed. Sam finds that Olivia has had a number of hetero- and homo-sexual partners including Peter's brother-in-law, Michael. He is able to demonstrate to the police that Michael, the brother of Peter's on-off girl-friend, Charlie, fellow-actor George and the brother of Olivia's flatmate all have motives and the opportunity to murder Olivia. The case against Peter is dropped and he heads off to the Bahamas where he awaits Charlie's arrival....

When Ian Fergusson receives a call from a former colleague, Peter Brompton, telling him of the theft of expensive pigment from his company, he agrees to meet him. His initial investigations indicate that another company is the actual victim of what appears to be a well-organised scam. An anonymous threat to his life rocks Ian back and, fearing for his life and the safety of his wife and children, he sends them away to stay with friends. He takes refuge in the family's holiday caravan but when that explodes and Peter is shot and killed, Ian knows the threats are real. A further gruesome killing of one of his contacts is followed by the kidnapping of Ian's son. Ian begins to suspect the involvement of a whole raft of his associates and is uncertain whom he can trust. Warned not to approach the police if he wants to see his son again, Ian takes matters into his own hands. Believing he has identified the gang leader, he boldly, if rather foolishly, enters the lion's den with explosive consequences.